The manufacturers of various pre-packaged products are constantly seeking to obtain a marketing edge over their rivals. Novel merchandising display bins or racks are but one way of gaining such an edge. Many of the prior and existing merchandising display bins are made of an opaque material. As a result, the consumer has a more difficult time in seeing the displayed merchandise from across the room of the retail establishment. This is a serious drawback, as point of purchase displays which show the trade dress of a product are believed to encourage profitable impulse sales.
Other prior merchandising display bins are transparent, overcoming this obstacle, but are relatively heavy because they are made of a molded, rigid plastic. Such display bins not only add to the weight of the product, but also prevent the bin from being stored away in a relatively compact form.
The prior art known to the inventors includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,187,924, issued to William Marcus on Jun. 8, 1965, entitled "CONTAINERS." This patent claims and describes a container for insertion into an apertured board, such as a peg board. Marcus does not disclose the use of soft and flexible vinyl in connection with a container, but rather discloses a rigid, walled container which is "molded from plastic." See column 2, lines 43-49.
From a review of its specification, it appears that Marcus is directed to a novel means of securing that container to the wall. This novel means includes upper spaced projections 20 which extend rearwardly from the rigid back wall of the container. That back wall also includes a second set of spaced projections 26 which, together with first spaced projections, enable the container to be secured to the wall. Nothing in Marcus appears to suggest soft vinyl or other flexible walls for the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,501,015, issued to Paul E. Behles on Mar. 17, 1970, is entitled "DISPLAY DEVICE FOR PACKAGED MERCHANDISE." This patent does not claim a bin at all. Rather, it discloses a merchandising display system for holding and displaying packaged goods. These packaged goods, such as boxes or other similar prepackaged articles (FIG. 1), are retained between and supported by a pair of package-supporting arms. These arm-like projections can retain only packages of a predetermined size, that is, packages of substantially the same length.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,502,294, issued to W. H. Kalbow et al. on Mar. 24, 1970, is entitled "MOUNTING ASSEMBLY." Although this patent shows a container in its FIGS. 1 and 2, that container is not made of a flexible vinyl or other similar material. Rather, the invention is directed to an anchor (see FIGS. 3, 4, 5 and 6) for securing an article onto an apertured board.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,404, issued to Arthur Goldstein et al. on Jul. 27, 1971, is entitled "SHELF." The appearance and purpose of the Goldstein invention are generally similar to that of the Behles invention discussed above. As may be seen in FIG. 1, however, the invention includes provision for up to six rows of the books or other similar articles which may be held by that shelf. Goldstein neither discloses nor suggests a bin including a soft vinyl plastic, nor does it suggest the manufacture of such a bin having collapsible features.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,356, issued to Edmund H. Schieve on May 15, 1979, is entitled "MODULAR CONTAINER." Schieve discloses a modular container which is made for mounting to an apertured board. The container itself has a front and rear wall, but it does not appear that any of the walls are made of a flexible vinyl. In fact, the container 10 disclosed is said to be of a "transparent plastic such as polystyrene." See column 3, lines 6-7. From a review of FIGS. 2 and 3, it is apparent that the polystyrene used for these containers is rigid. Moreover, the structures described in these figures must be rigid. In particular, at column 4, lines 11-15, it is disclosed that the edge 68 of lid 66 is rounded and shaped so that it can be forced into pivot 62. If the lid 66 were made of a flexible vinyl, there would be no need to shape and round the ends of that lid in order to force it into pivot 62. Finally, wall 22 of the container is obviously self-supporting, as may be seen in FIGS. 2 and 3. That wall could not support itself structurally in the manner shown unless it were rigid.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,352, issued to Elzie T. White on Feb. 3, 1981, is entitled "WIRE POCKET DISPLAY DEVICE." The device claimed in this patent is again very similar to the above-described wire display racks of Behles and Goldstein. It is intended to retain objects of generally regular and rectangular shapes, as may be seen in FIG. 2.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,006, issued to Howard J. Marschak on Mar. 30, 1982, is entitled "DISPLAY UNIT MOUNTING MEANS." This patent discloses a display unit for use with an apertured support, such as a peg board, and for displaying a plurality of objects. FIGS. 2 and 4, and the description of their features including their wall portions 61 and 62, clearly show that the walls of the unit's container are rigid. The container is described as having "upstanding front, rear and side walls." This patent does not disclose containers manufactured of a flexible vinyl.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,832, issued to Harold N. Minick et al. on Sep. 24, 1985, is entitled "STORAGE ACCESSORIES FOR MOVABLE PARTITION SYSTEMS." The Minick invention discloses accessories for suspension from beams mounted on either space divider panels or a stand. At the right-hand side of FIG. 1, the Minick reference discloses "a pocket forming, flexible web 54 (that) can be suspended between the back and front lateral members of the frame 46 to form (a) pouch-like accessory 60." This device is not, however, a bin of any sort. It does not include side walls which would retain articles within the bin upon movement of those articles to the right or left. Rather, the web of the Minick invention merely provides support for articles.